Last edited on October 10, 2019. View history
Wax Bean
A variety of bean
How to sow wax bean: Direct seed outdoors, thin to 30cm when seedlings are 4cm tall
Sun requirement for wax bean: Plant in Full Sun
Wax beans are a type of snap bean with vibrant yellow, patterned, or dark purple skin and a slightly waxier texture. They can be eaten whole with pod and seeds and have a mild and fresh taste. Wax beans come in pole and bush varieties. Like other legumes, wax beans benefit from an inoculant.
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Wax bean facts
Lifespan
Height × spread
40cm × 40cmRow Spacing
7cmCrop cycle
Max altitude
Optimal light
What are growing degree days?
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For wax bean, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 7°C and a shortest growing cycle of 50 days at its best temperature, about 675 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your wax bean will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
Growing wax beans
- Dig the bed and add compost 1 week before sowing
- Put up supports for climbing beans 1 week after sowing
- Water regularly at sowing every week
- Weed carefully 3 weeks after sowing every 2 weeks
- Pick beans regularly at first harvest every week
- Leave some pods to dry for seed 6 weeks after first harvest
- Pull out finished plants and dig in the roots 8 weeks after first harvest
Plant wax beans with
eggplant
Video
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Time to harvest
If sown now, expect a first harvest in about 50 to 270 days.
From the growing cycle in the FAO EcoCrop database, which is the same wherever it is grown.
Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Phaseolus vulgaris L.
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Rosidae Fabales Leguminosae |
|---|---|
| Life form | herb |
| Life span | annual |
| Habit | prostrate/procumbent/semi-erect |
| Optimal soil depth | medium (50-150 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | medium, organic |
| Optimal soil fertility | moderate |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours), neutral day (12-14 hours) |
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